Vienna’s knack for building functional, yet livable public housing dates back to the days of Red Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s, when the then Socialist government took an active interest in building for the masses for the first time. Over the decades, the city gradually developed a housing design policy that is exemplary in its consideration of quality of life.

The exhibition Housing in Vienna. Innovative, Social and Ecological, curated by the Architekturzentrum Wien, provides a comprehensive survey of urban housing design in Vienna from its beginnings to the present. It features housing projects within the publicly subsidized housing programme, including the Gasometer complex by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Jean Nouvel, Manfred Wehdorn, and Wilhelm Holzbauer; the Sargfabrik and Miss Sargfabrik projects by BKK-2 and BKK-3; the Frauen-Werk-Stadt by Franziska Ullmann, Lieselotte Peretti, Gisela Podrekka, and Elsa Prochazka; the Mischek Tower by Elke Delugan-Meissl and Roman Delugan; and the Donau City and Wienerberg City urban development projects and other projects.